Looking to breed.. any tips?

[CarlyCarlos]

hey there
i have recently have researched information on how to breed my dragons. I have Carly and Carlos. I have had Carlos since he was a month old and carly we got from someone who could no longer take care of her. If anyone has any tips for me that would be greatly appreciated !
Right now I have them in seperate tanks, i know i have to lower the temp but how low do i put it?

Hope to get some hints soon

 

[Jayson745]

you should start breeding tons and tons of bugs ahead of time unless you have money to order thousands of crickets every week. Knowing what your getting into is the most important thing. lots of tanks with lots of lights and a crazy amount of bugs.

 

[jharris08]

first of all just to be sure you have come across these important things in your research: make sure both dragons are of proper age/size and in good health for breeding...male should be at least 12 months and female at least 18 months before I would even consider breeding. also make sure you are prepared for up to 100 eggs in the span of 4 months once the female starts laying...thats a lot of space and crickets to feed all of those hungry mouths, and a good incubator is necessary...just want 2 make sure you are thinking about all of this.
its good that u have them separated.. and let them go into brumation for the next couple months if they will ( this is healthy for breeding) lower the light cycle to match whats going on naturally outside ( around 9 hrs on and 15 off).. if you have a high wattage bulb then you might lower it too to allow for slightly lower temps, but the extra sleep will be the best thing for them.
around the first or middle of march i would start reversing the process and bring the light cyle and temp back up to normal, and start offering food and water normally again ( they dont eat or drink much at all during brumation)
put them together for about 5-7 days and that should be plenty of time for them to mate, then separate again to prevent stress on the female.
good luck!

 

[CarlyCarlos]

thank you so much
i have them seperate right now.. and they arnt eating like at all, i offer food but they wont eat. male is about 3 years and the female is roughly the same age , i got her off someone who couldnt take care of her anymore and he said she was about 2.. so they are the right age
im buying an incubator from a reptile store so im guessing its a good one, it costs $250. my brother is breeding bugs now, roches and stuff. crickets smell too bad. what would you suggest be the best diet? they eat eal worms, wax worms, salad, veggies,, fruit right now.

 

[DragonsNDoodles]

That's an expensive incubator!! The Hova-Bator is perfectly fine, and it's about $50. I wouldn't offer mealworms- they have too hard of a shell and can cause impaction.

What worries me is that you don't know the genetics of the parents. If you want to sell the babies, you will not be able to sell them for much if you don't know the genetics, and you really can't just make up a morph based on the way they look.

 

[CarlyCarlos]

im not going to do it for the money, im doing it for a hobbie. they dont have any special colouring to them so i know i wont get much anyways. what would u suggest be a good diet then? right now they eat mostly meal worms. havent had any problems

 

[healthybeardie]

You may have already read this, but just in case you did not I wanted to post it. This is a very informative link about the costs, challenges, potential risks and DEEP commitment involved in breeding. There is a lot to take into consideration for the best interest of the bearded dragons being breeded and their offspring.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=126455

 

[Jayson745]

What worries me is that you don't know the genetics of the parents. If you want to sell the babies, you will not be able to sell them for much if you don't know the genetics, and you really can't just make up a morph based on the way they look.

This isn't really correct(no offense). morphs are hypo, translucent, leather/silkback. Most of the rest of it (crimson sunburst sandfire allen blood ect.) are just what you said, someone made it up to describe colors they were producing. I think its almost gotten silly sometimes when I see half a sentence describing a dragon, when all the blahXblahXblahXblah are really just saying what website the grandparents came from. A really colorful dragon sells with or without all that.

 

[Deemac6]

Genetics are extremely important in breeding to avoid inbreeding, Morphs names such as that are usually use by the breeder to keep track of which dragon came from what dragon to prevent this. BD's are illegal to important and this makes the risk of inbreeding that much higher.

You may think you are ready to start, but you really should think about talking to Tom, its an extremely expensive hobby which will more then likely put you in some from of debt. There has been an explosion of people starting to breed and trust me trying to find people to give your dragons to will be hard and you have to prepare for the fact you might be stuck with A LOT of babies for a long time : can you support that?